The Pay Yourself Back benefit ends Dec. 31, 2022. Some offers mentioned below are no longer available.
Chase Ultimate Rewards® points are known for packing an impressive punch and delivering some of the highest value in the credit cards rewards business.
Popular Chase cards, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, earn coveted Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. You can use these points to book travel — including car rentals, hotels, flights, tours and activities — through an easy-to-use portal.
Beyond convenience, Chase points have the potential to be worth 25% or 50% more when they are redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal or with the new Pay Yourself Back tool.
New Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.
And if travel loyalty programs are your thing, Chase points can score you a bigger bang for your buck with higher-than-average redemption rates when transferred to one of Chase's 14 airline and hotel partners. For instance, 75,000 points could buy you three nights at the luxurious Park Hyatt Maldives.
Ahead, Select breaks down our favorite ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
How to redeem your Chase points for maximum value
Transfer to airline or hotel partners
The Chase travel portal is a great place to book travel fast, but transferring points to one of Chase's 14 travel partners will stretch your rewards even further.
Ultimate Rewards® points can be transferred to travel partners at a 1:1 ratio with either a Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. You can transfer points to the following partners:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Flying Blue (KLM and Air France)
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
The 60,000 bonus points from the Sapphire Preferred's bonus would therefore be worth 60,000 points or miles with any of Chase's travel partners.
The best ways to transfer Chase points
You can get outsized value from your Chase points when transferring to airline or hotel partners.
World of Hyatt
The World of Hyatt hotel program often presents one of the best values for transferring Chase points. Standard nights range from just 5,000 to 40,000 points.
You can book luxurious hotels, like the Park Hyatt Maldives or Park Hyatt Sydney for as little as 25,000 points a night. These hotels can often cost more than $1,000 a night.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Chase cardholders can redeem Virgin Atlantic miles to fly domestic itineraries on Delta for just 7,500 to 15,000 miles per segment, which can be a steal compared to what Delta charges customers when using Delta Skymiles for the same flight. And Delta One business class flights from the U.S. to Europe (with the exception of the U.K.) are 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles for nonstop itineraries.
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
Southwest transfers work best in a few select scenarios. Mainly, for fares less than $100, Rapid Reward points are worth roughly 1.7 cents each, which beat the value of 1.25 cents or 1.5 cents you can get when booking travel through the Chase portal. And if you have a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, you can book two flights for the price of one (excluding taxes and fees), in which case your points can be worth as high as 3.4 cents in value for sub-$100 fares.
Redeem for travel through the Ultimate Rewards portal
When you book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, your points are worth 1.25 cents each with the Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred or 1.5 cents each with the Sapphire Reserve.
That means you could book a $750 flight (on any airline) via Chase Travel℠ (which looks and works much like Expedia.com) for 60,000 points with the Sapphire Preferred Card.
This option is great because you can book with virtually any airline or hotel on the portal and there are no blackout dates. You're not limited to the 13 Chase travel partners and their respective award availability, which can sometimes be hard to find.
Use Chase Pay Yourself Back
Chase introduced "Pay Yourself Back" last spring as a way to get good value from you points outside of travel.
Pay Yourself Back allows cardholders to redeem points for statement credits on eligible purchases and still benefit from the 25% to 50% value boost with certain cards. Essentially you can "erase" these purchases from your statement at an elevated rate. So, 60,000 points from the Chase Sapphire Preferred would cover $750 of eligible purchases.
Here are all the eligible cards:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (1.25 cents)
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (1.5 cents)
- Chase Freedom Flex℠ (1 cent)
- Chase Freedom Unlimited® (1 cent)
- Chase Freedom® (no longer accepting new applicants)
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (1.25 cents)
- Ink Plus® Business Card* (no longer accepting new applicants)
*Ink Business members can also offset select online advertising and shipping expenses.
Which Chase credit cards earn Ultimate Rewards points?
These are the Chase credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card *
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® *
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card *
- Chase Freedom Flex℠
- Chase Freedom Unlimited®
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
* You must have one of these cards to transfer Chase points to travel partners.
Our methodology
To determine which credit cards offer the best value for various categories, Select analyzed Chase credit cards available in the U.S. We compared each card on a range of features, including rewards, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, balance transfer fee and foreign transaction fees, as well as factors such as required credit and customer reviews when available. We also considered additional perks, the application process and how easy it is for the consumer to redeem points.
Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company's data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here.
Esri's data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $22,126 in retail spending. The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses.
Select used this budget to estimate how much the average consumer would save over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee.
While the five-year estimates we've included are derived from a budget similar to the average American's spending, you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your shopping habits.
Information about the Chase Freedom Flex℠ has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of the card prior to publication.
